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After spending several years touring the country as a stand up comedian, Ed Brayton tired of explaining his jokes to small groups of dazed illiterates and turned to writing as the most common outlet for the voices in his head. He has appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show and the Thom Hartmann Show, and is almost certain that he is the only person ever to make fun of Chuck Norris on C-SPAN.

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Akin Still Pretending He Didn’t Mean It

Todd Akin is still pretending that he merely “misspoke” when he claimed that women don’t get pregnant from rape because their bodies shut down. He and his supporters are still acting as if the problem was merely with his use of the word “legitimate.”

After 12 years representing Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District, this infamous quote, “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down,” derailed his campaign and his reputation.

Would he take those six seconds back?

Akin said, “Oh, of course I would! I’ve relived them too many times. But that is not reality.”

In the past, Akin said he regrets those remarks but does he believe they are true? Does he believe in his heart that the female body can stop a pregnancy in the case of a rape?

Akin said, “No, no and I apologized for that. All of us are fallible, we make mistakes, and we say things the wrong way. I really lived that moment many, many times.”

But this was not just a case of saying something the wrong way. He actually believed, and probably still believes, that rape does not lead to pregnancy. Lots and lots of anti-choice types believe that nonsense. He didn’t misspeak. He wasn’t taken out of context. He actually believes that.

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And apparently a lot of “doctors” believe it too. Shortly after Akin opened his mouth on that subject, NPR had a Republican activist saying that several doctors had called in to Akin’s campaign HQ or something to assert that, yes, Akin was right about those rape-proof wombs.

Akin didn’t misspeak — he parroted a stupid opinion that many on the radical right shared.

I’ll go one further than Doug and say he believes that most rapes are the fault of the woman or she simply regrets having sex. Rape just isn’t a big deal to him because he doesn’t understand how it affects the victims.

He also said he doesn’t believe the female body can shut down pregnancy in the event of rape. It’s quite a bizarre spectacle really. He’ll say he doesn’t believe what he said, but is incapable of using the phrase “I was wrong” It has to be ‘I misspoke” or ” I said it the wrong way”

You’ve come a long way, baby!
We’ve gone all the way from “a woman has a right to an abortion up to the point of fetal viability” all the way to “we don’t need a ‘rape exemption’ to a total abortion ban because pregnant women who say they were raped are liars”.
Smile through those tears, it’s Mourning in America!

It’s amazing to me how many people believe this. I can’t tell you how many discussions I’ve had with anti-choicers who wind up here. Usually, they’ll start arguing with “just don’t have sex,” and then I’ll ask whether they believe in rape exceptions — because, you know, if they do then it’s obvious that their true concern is that sexually active women aren’t deserving of bodily rights (since fetal life suddenly doesn’t matter if sex wasn’t consensual), but if they don’t then “just don’t have sex” goes out the window.

But rather than actually answer the question (and admit their inconsistency), 99% of the time they’ll just claim that pregnancy from rape isn’t a thing. It’s disgusting.

Awww, I’m so sorry for Akin that he “really lived that moment many, many times”. It must be hard, reliving such a traumatic event over and over in your head. At least saying stupid shit has a way of shutting down all the bad publicity that can ensue from it. Oh, it doesn’t? Well, that must be horrible for you Rep. Akin. Just horrible.

timberwoof: she may have been lying, but I do hear occasional rumors of doctors who really are that ignorant and that disdainful, especially of women’s health issues (it’s mostly poor people who get stuck with doctors like that, which give us a good idea why there’s so much mistrust of “mainstream medicine”). Remember that guy who said a woman could never be President because of “raging hormonal imbalances?” He was a doctor too.

The anti-choicers know that their usual tactic of slut shaming isn’t going to convince anyone outside their echo chamber when it comes to rape. So, Akin did what wingnuts always do when confronted with facts that don’t fit into their black and white worldview: He wished it away.

@13: Indeed; sadly, our medical practice as it exists is a lot less science-based (or good-science-based; I don’t really consider junk science to be actual science, but that rapidly turns into a No True Scotsman derailing debate, even when there’s demonstrable, substantive deviation from accepted scientific methods) than the general impression of it. Many, many doctors prescribe woo remedies. I’ve had psychiatrists suggest aromatherapy and acupuncture. The “holistic wellness” clinic right next to my actual hospital is run by doctors. Getting an M.D. doesn’t inoculate one against believing bullshit any more than a Ph.D.

Did any of you see the episode of “Law and Order: SVU” that riffed on this? In the case of the TV show, it was actually an MD who was claiming that the body could tell the difference between “legitimate rape” and whatever’s left.

Female ducks have evolved vaginas that mostly prevent pregnancy from rape. They twist around and have dead ends. However, male ducks have also evolved freakish penises so that they can rape better. So maybe he confuses humans with ducks.

“I really lived that moment many, many times.” So might you say it was the worst moment of your life? And now you’re being forced to relive that terrible event again and again in a public, humiliating way? Gosh that sounds MUCH worse than the crimes you dismissed so blithely. Poor you.

“lived that moment many, many times.”. But the first big batch of those time was when he was getting admiring glances and “‘atta boy’s” from his penis gallery of fans. Then the RNC* hadda sad and told him that being a fuckweasel was fine, but being a dumbfuckweasel–especially when you open your piehole and your brain falls out–in public means no money for you, dumbfuckweasel.

I love the focus on the word “legitimate”. It could scarcely be more perfect, that he said something so goddamned offensive and then thinks that it’s word choice rather than content that was the problem.

Here’s what I imagine Akin would say about race relations: “We have got to stop these lazy black welfare recipients… Oh, I’m sorry, I misspoke: We have got to stop these lazy AFRICAN-AMERICAN welfare recipients.”